Former finance minister to advise Clark

Former finance minister Carole Taylor has signed on as an advisor to Premier Christy Clark as the B.C. government examines what to do with the carbon tax Taylor introduced in 2008.

Clark announced the appointment in Vancouver Monday, saying she will call on Taylor’s experience on advancing the province’s greenhouse gas reduction program. Taylor will work from the premier’s Vancouver office and be paid a nominal one dollar a year.

As a former Vancouver city councillor and advisor to Ottawa, Taylor will also give input on the province’s effort to rein in soaring housing prices in Metro Vancouver, Clark said.

Taylor told reporters she has spoken to Harvard and Stanford Universities in the U.S. on the B.C. carbon tax experience, and is looking forward to providing policy advice to B.C. on where to go from here.

The B.C. tax has been frozen at $30 a tonne since 2013, adding about seven cents to the price of a litre of gasoline with similar increases for natural gas and other heating fuels.

Taylor is the latest of a series of special advisors to Clark, after former Encana CEO Gwyn Morgan and former Canfor and Finning executive Jim Shepard.

Taylor served one term in former premier Gordon Campbell’s cabinet before retiring from politics in late 2008, when she was appointed chair of a new federal government economic advisory panel.

Since leaving B.C. politics, Taylor served on the board of directors of the TD Bank and as chancellor of Simon Fraser University.